Like all of you, we at Teeccino are deeply troubled by the terrible injustice and ensuing conflict that has roiled our country in recent days. Finding our way forward to discover solutions that will prevent police brutality and heal racist division is a process that we as a company, as well as each of us as individuals, are fully committed to.

After much discussion at our company meetings, we’ve realized that right action for Teeccino to address these wrongs starts with what we know best: creating health and supporting a clean environment. Too often, communities of color are defenseless against corporate polluters and they become victims of environmental crimes. It could be toxic waste dumped in their neighborhoods or new pipelines that destroy their homes, or any number of other environmental injustices.

To begin, we’d like to bring awareness and support to a national law that is the foundation of our right to protect ourselves and the environment. 50 years ago, Congress enacted The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) which has given all of us, including communities of color, a voice on what contracts and project the federal government approves and funds. NEPA mandates Environmental Impact Statements on projects by both the government and industry. It gives communities the right to defend themselves against harmful actions.

We can support communities of color and their fight to keep their environment healthy by supporting those organizations that help them defend themselves. Earthjustice is a group of lawyers that defends environmental cases in court to hold industry and the government accountable. Greenaction is a grassroots group of urban, rural and indigenous leaders who work with community partners in the fight for environmental, social, economic and climate justice. These are just two of many groups, both local and national, that work tirelessly to bring the full bearing of laws like NEPA to protect the environment and prevent social injustice and racial discrimination.

On the lid of every Teeccino tea box, we print information about groups whose work has inspired us by their commitment and the impact of their mission. We encourage you to read the lids when you sip a cup of Teeccino. Watch for more groups that we plan to feature on our lids in the coming months. Just knowing what one another is doing helps us all become more aware and thus, better citizens. If you have worthy organizations that you think everyone should know about, please share them with us for consideration. We can all keep informing each other of the good works being done by many to right the wrongs of the past and brings us together for a better future!

Teeccino Turmeric Golden 'Milk' from Nirvana

This may be the most delicious drink I’ve ever made. I really didn’t expect pungent spices like turmeric and ginger simmered in almond milk with coconut cream and dates to turn into such a creamy, frothy beverage that is completely divine. Move over any dessert– this cup will hit the spot and leave you completely transported to nirvana.

Instructions

Into a pot, place the almond milk, fresh turmeric, and ginger slices (or dried powders), dash of black pepper, and the Teeccino Dandelion Turmeric tea bag (minus the string and tag which you should cut off) or the Dandelion Turmeric grounds.

Simmer for 5-10 minutes on a low heat. The milk will begin to turn golden yellow from the turmeric.

Into a blender, put the coconut cream and the chopped dates. Blend them until smooth.

Remove the pot of simmering liquid from the stove and take out the tea bag with a spoon.

Strain the liquid through a tea strainer or fine mesh strainer into the blender to remove the spices and grounds.

Blend well until the liquid is frothy.

Pour into a cup. Sprinkle cinnamon across the top of the cup.

Sit back and savor this deliciously, rich drink that brings you all of the health benefits of turmeric and ginger plus pure unadulterated pleasure!

Teeccino Coconutty Sorbet

This sorbet is so creamy and dairy free, you'll think you are eating ice cream. Even better, it's so easy to make! The flavor is a unique combination of coffee, vanilla, and coconut, without the acidity and caffeine of real coffee. It is also a wonderful dessert, for any occasion, any time of the year!

Prep Time: 10minutes

Cook Time: 30minutes

Total Time: 40minutes

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: ice cream

Servings: 4scoops

Calories: 151kcal

Ingredients

1.5cupsbrewed double strength Vanilla Nut Teeccino

.75cupsorganic sugar or non-caloric sweetener

114oz can light coconut milk

2tspvanilla extract

.5tspTeeccino grounds

Instructions

In a medium bowl, whisk all ingredients together until well blended.

Freeze mixture in ice cream maker according to manufacturers instructions.

Super Memory Ice Cream

From Down Under comes an Australian recipe for enhancing memory by eating Banana Ice Cream flavored with Teeccino's all-purpose grind. The sugar-free and vegan recipe calls for using the inside of the banana peels as well as the fruit so please buy organic bananas! Banana peels contain tryptophan that boosts seratonin production so maybe thats why the Aussies found that this ice cream improves their memory. You can enjoy this ice cream with lots of optional ingredients beyond the basic recipe. This is so easy to make but if youd like to watch a video, check out this fun video on Youtube. They sing a song about the ice cream starting at minute 11:30 so fast forward if you want to hear it quicker. Thanks to our Teeccino fans, Donovan and Tahlia from www.completefamilyhealing.com. By the way, they're offering free long distance massages to help de-stress our anxious world! Enjoy a massage while eating a bowl of Super Memory Ice Cream! What will the Aussies think of next?

Prep Time: 10minutes

Cook Time: 4hours

Total Time: 4hours10minutes

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: ice cream

Servings: 3drinks

Calories: 216kcal

Ingredients

6ripe, organic bananas

14oz can coconut creampreferably organic

111oz bag of Teeccino - any flavor!

.5cupCashew or almond milk

Optional: chocolate chips

Instructions

Peel the bananas and keep the skins.

Cut each banana into about 4 pieces and place into your blender.

Scrape the inside of the banana skins with a knife and place the white strings in the blender too.

TeeChia Berry Crisp

What's more enticing than a delicious berry crisp? One with a crispy crust made with TeeChia! With the added crunch from TeeChia's 6 super seeds, this dessert brings you the satisfied fullness and health benefits of TeeChia Gluten-Free Cereal. Enjoy this bright berry crisp warm from the oven, topped with a scoop of vanilla, cinnamon, or caramel ice cream!

How Adaptogens Relieve Stress

By Caroline MacDougall

April 30, 2020

I’ve been thinking about stress a lot lately ~ and experiencing way more of it like everyone else on the planet. With a pandemic in full swing, we’re all having to change our lives around dramatically. That in itself is stressful but on top of this, we’ve got lots more on our plates to make life chaotic and thus even more stressful.

Parents are coping with working from home while also being full-time homeschool teachers. Family members may have moved in, crowding the living space. Extra work for cooking and cleaning has been created by so much at-home-ness. The list just goes on and on. Plenty to stress about without even getting started on our health!

The state of stress can sneak up on you. It’s not like anxiety, which makes itself well known as it gnaws in your gut. Although you can be both anxious and stressed at the same time, you probably pay a lot more attention to the anxious feelings than you do to the more subtle overall sense of being under stress.

People around you may perceive that you’re stressed before you realize it. They see the shortness of your temper, the irritability, the tenseness of your face. I personally found myself realizing I was much more stressed than I fully comprehended and I began tracking the symptoms. Tense shoulders, tired eyes from staring at screens, uptight reactions, panic around taking care of everything, and maybe worst of all, an inability to really think clearly.

If you can’t change the things that are causing you stress on a day-to day-basis, what can you do to reduce it?

The answer is, you can rely on adaptogens, the herbs and mushrooms that support the body in adapting to stress, to help you stay calm and keep out of the high stress zone. Let’s look at what adaptogens do in your body to reset your stress levels.

First things first ~ what are adaptogens?

It all started with Russian scientists in the 1950’s researching what herbs would help their Olympic athletes and their cosmonauts adapt to stress under extreme conditions while producing health benefits like increasing their endurance and enhancing their immune systems.

Here’s the definition of “adaptogen” that has evolved since those days for the term they created:

Adaptogens are herbs and mushrooms that increase resistance to stress, whether the cause is physical, chemical or biological. They have a non-specific normalizing effect on the body’s physical systems by strengthening the immune system, the nervous system and the glandular system. Adaptogens also enhance the body’s ability to recover after exercise, to reduce fatigue and increase cognitive function. They may be taken on a continuous basis without causing any harm.

The three stages of stress

When you’re first succumbing to stress, your body enters the “fight or flight” response. Your adrenal glands pump out cortisol and other stress hormones to heighten the feeling of being energized by increased mental alertness while your liver floods your blood with glucose for quick energy. If you’ve read my newsletter for awhile, you’ll know that caffeine stimulates this stress response too. At the same time, your body pulls energy away from your digestion and immune system so you can prepare to fight off an enemy or run from danger.

Hans Seyle, a Canadian researcher and medical doctor, identified three stages of stress he called the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). The first stage is the alarm stage when you initially react to stress and are in the fight-or-flight response. The second stage is the resistance stage when you body tries to adapt to the stressful state. Cortisol will stay elevated in your blood stream, increasing the duration of stress, which begins to affect your mood and your body. Your blood pressure may remain elevated, you may be irritable and have poor concentration. You are quickly frustrated and various muscles remains tense.

If you remain in the resistance stage too long, you enter the third stage of stress, which is the exhaustion stage. This is when you feel burnt-out, exhausted all the time and your mood may be anxious or depressed. Your immune system is depressed too which puts you at risk for developing an illness or chronic health condition. Prolonged stress may cause heart disease, strokes, digestive problems, insomnia and weight gain.

Adaptogens and cortisol, the stress hormone

One of the standard tests for evaluating an herb or mushroom to determine if it qualifies to be an adaptogen is to test whether or not its continuous use will normalize the adrenal gland’s production of cortisol. The battle to maintain optimal cortisol levels is the key to relieving stress.

Although the mechanism that adaptogens use to support the body in relieving stress isn’t well understood, they seem to normalize the balance between the sympathetic nervous system, which activates the fight-or-flight response, and the parasympathetic nervous system which stimulates the body to “rest-and-digest”. Thus if you have too little cortisol, adaptogens will support the adrenals in producing more whereas if your adrenals are producing too much cortisol, they will help its production come back into balance.

Studies also look at the ability to perform better on cognitive tests when under stressful conditions in order to determine the ability of an herb or mushroom to support a better response to stress.

Five Of The Best-Studied Adaptogens For Reducing Stress

Eleuthero: The first herb Russian scientists were studying when they developed the term ”adaptogen”. Originally known as Siberian ginseng, eleuthero is a member of the same botanical family as ginseng. Russian studies showed it to have many of the same health benefits as ginseng such as increased endurance, lowered stress response and support for the immune system.

Reishi: Asia’s Mushroom of Longevity has been renowned for 2000 years for its strengthening effects on health so much so that it was believed that consuming reishi mushrooms helped prolong life. Its antioxidants and polysaccharides are some of the active ingredients thought to support stress reduction.

Astragalus: considered a tonic herb in Asia, astragalus is often added to soups to help prevent illness and strengthen vitality. Animal studies show that astragalus improves cognitive performance such as memory and learning as well as reducing anxiety under stressful conditions.

Tulsi: Revered in India for over 5,000 years, Tulsi has been well studied for its effects on reducing stress whether from physical, psychological, metabolic or chemical stressors. Animal studies show that tulsi optimizes physical endurance, improves cognitive performance under stress, and human studies have shown results for mood improvement and reduction of stress scores.

Rhodiola: Growing in the northern most climate of Siberia where cold temperatures subject plants to stress, rhodiola has shown the ability to improve the response to stress. Human studies show rhodiola can reduce fatigue associated with burn-out, uplift mood and relieve anxiety while improving mental performance.